SNEHA LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE (+1) 470-484-3921 ssubra01@risd.edu
CONTENTS
THE KITCHEN SINK AND EVERYTHING
GHOST KITCHEN HUB,
CHILDREN’S
RECONFIGURING SCHOOLS IN
ORDERLY PAVILION,
BOAT HOUSE,
BLURRED BOUNDARIES
ELEPHANT INTERPRETATION
EVERYTHING ELSE HUB, PROVIDENCE
CHILDREN’S VILLAGE INDIAN SLUMS
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RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION
RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION
CENTER, INDIA
ACADEMIA CONSTRUCTION
THE KITCHEN SINK AND EVERYTHING ELSE
GHOST KITCHEN HUB, PROVIDENCE
RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN | ADVANCE ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
STUDIO INSTRUCTOR: ANA GABRIELA
IN COLLABORATION WITH: DAVID SWAN
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SLAB AS A MACHINE
The Ghost kitchen is an exploration on how to design kitchens for adaptability. We used artificial intelligence as a generative tool to imagine how the built environment can respond to the inhabitants’ changing functional requirements. This gives autonomy to the user, allowing them to have meaningful participation in the design of their built environment.
The difficulty in flexible kitchens is the typology’s dependency on services, we tackled this by envisioning the Slab as machines takes physical form in a plug-and-play strategy, where kitchen components are inserted and/or withdrawn from the slab, following vendors’ production and equipment needs. The slab, however, is not a standardized element, but it is the result of a negotiation between functional needs of regularity, chef and visitors promenade, and the fluid insertion of outdoor space into the indoor space.
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KITCHEN COMPONENTS ARE INSERTED AND/OR WITHDRAWN FROM THE SLAB “NODES” TO AUGMENT THE ADAPTABILITY OF SPATIAL CONFIGURATIONS
DATASET CREATIONS - DESIGNER INPUT
STYLEGAN2 - AI TRAINING
TRANSLATION OF AI OUTPUTS INTO FUNCTIONAL SPACES
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SLAB NODES ALLOW SPACE TO ADAPT TO DIFFERENT FUNCTIONAL TYPOLOGIES
PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION GUIDEDED BY SLAB MANIPULATIONS
SECTIONAL CUT THROUGH THE SLAB MANIPULATIONS
PHYSICAL MODEL
NODE 3
SLAB
FLOOR PLAN SECTION AA’ 4
CHILDREN’S VILLAGE
RECONFIGURING SCHOOLS IN INDIAN SLUMS 02
NINTH SEMESTER DESIGN | BSAU | 2018
STUDIO INSTRUCTORS: VIVEKANANDAN, SARITHA, THILAKAVATHI S.M
There are about 10 lakh government-funded schools in India offering primary education. But these schools are in extremely bad shape with some even lacking basic amenities such as electricity & water. The aim was to design a school for 400 students from grade 1 to 8 in Phulwari Sharif, Patna, Bihar. The proposed facility has areas that are collaborative, interactive, and multi-functional that can be used by the local community post-school hours.
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CONNECTING FIGURE TO GROUND
The design employs local architectural materials and aesthetics to create a sense of home. Space is conceptualized from the “heirarchy of social spaces” observed in urban design strategies to foster a sense of belonging among the children. The form evolves to be a circular shape with an inward orientation around courtyards. The alternating peaks and ceiling heights allow daylight to stream into the corridors. The continuous roof reinforces the feeling of community emphasized by a shared school setting. The roof is accessible to the children to climb, socialize and view the activities taking place in the courtyard.
HOME INWARD
ORIENTATION
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SITE PLAN 7
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
Sustainable community prototype
Sustainable farming is practiced along the circumference of the basketball court-amphitheatre. Students will engage in cultivating the farms, the produce will then be provided to the local community. The amphitheatre is activated by the locals during after school hours, vertical bi-fold louvered windows allows a flexible covered space for the community gatherings. The stepped central courtyard takes cue from the traditional step wells and the rainwater water runoff is collected and stored for community usage.
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FIRST FLOOR PLAN SECTION BB’
CATALAN BRICK VAULT DETAIL BI-FOLD WINDOW TO CONNECT THE GREEN SPACES INTO THE CLASSROOM 9
RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN | GRAD CORE 1
STUDIO INSTRUCTOR: JACQUELINE SHAW
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RE-FORM ORDERLY PAVILION
The brief was to design a pavilion on the grounds of John Brown’s house. The sites’ racial history was an opportunity to investigate the possibilities of an inclusive post-colonial environment. The Pavilion is an interpretation of “re-formed” colonial arches. The Proposal was a manipulation of the contiguous geometry of the arch to create niches and nodes for exploration, contemplation and inclusive social interactions.
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PROPOSED ELEVATION
ELEVATION 12
PHYSCIAL MODEL SCALE 1:8
COLOR AND LIGHT AS A SPATIAL MEASURE
The boathouse is an investigation on gathering of color and light as way to perceive spatial measure and progression. The design began with my observation of different hues of color of the Seekonk River through the different times of the day. This phenomenon was due to the difference in the depth the water is, what is in it (amount of dissolve materials ) and the light. This was true for the architecture of boat house as well. The undulating roof and floor planes gathers different the amount of light and color from the sky, ground and reflected from the water. Roof achieves a rhythmic modulation that lets in southern light through the building’s upper clerestory. In summer, the clerestory lets in fresh air, while in winter, it allows sunlight to warm the floor slab, minimizing energy use throughout the year.
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The roof meets a level edge at the periphery and deflects at varying angles towards the sky at the central spine.
The ground plane is level along the central spines and deflects up/down at the periphery to gather colors from the water and sky into the environment.
THE DEFLECTING FLOOR AND GROUND PLANES ALLOW THE BOAT HOUSE TO BE MEASURED THROUGH COLOR AND LIGHT
The boathouse is imagined as series of successive layered translucent and transparent planes that acts as a lens to gather varying degrees of color reflected from the water, boats and the rowers as one journeys through the environment. The transparency creates phenomenon of visual connectivity displaying all of boat house’s activities to the community outside creating an opportunity for a more inclusive environment.
a b c Community circulation Boat house member circulation
PLAN
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Boat house acts as an instrument to gather the community
SECTION
bb’ 15
BLURRED BOUNDARIES
ELEPHANT INTERPRETATION CENTER, INDIA
THESIS | BSA
STUDIO INSTRUCTORS: VIVEKANANDAN, SARITHA, THILAKAVATHI S.M
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The design aims to redefine the idea of “Fence” to translate it into a sustainable coexistence between man and elephant. The spatial narrative is a journey of ascent, descent and an introspective pause organically developed through the site’s contours. Architecture develops the unique framework of a cross-species design allowing the elephants to move freely out of their enclosures through permeable barriers with points of physical and visual coexistence with the visitors.
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Recent past presents a dismal picture of declining sentiments towards elephants. In the forest fringes this is manifested in the form of retaliatory attack on wild elephants. This circumstance forces the forest department to capture elephants which are injured and orphaned. This necessitates the need for developing facilities for caring for these captive elephants under near natural settings.
AN INTROSPECTIVE JOURNEY
Adult male elephants are solitary in nature but may associate with other bulls. This social pattern has evolved into the spatial pattern. The bridge provides a shaded area under which the mammals scratch themselves against the rough materiality of the stone column. Watering hole, re-used sand flooring and dust bath addresses their behavioral needs.
SITE PLAN
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Blurring the boundarues : A narrative
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REDO.SPACES RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION 06 VILLA 103 | 2019 | CHENNAI, INDIA ROLE : DESIGN LEAD | PROJECT MANAGER
Smells are more tied to a perception of place than any other human sense. This childhood memory of the smell of delicious food wafting in from the kitchen was the backbone of the design approach. We opened up the rigid enclosed kitchen into one fluid living, dining, and kitchen space.This area has become the center of multisensory interaction for the family.
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APRIL 2021 AUGUST
LOFT | 2020 | CHENNAI, INDIA
ROLE : DESIGN LEAD | PROJECT MANAGER
REDO.SPACES RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION 07
2021
OCTOBER 2021 SPACE TRANSFORMING TO ALLOW THE COMMUNITY TO GATHER
The residents wanted to reconfigure their open terrace into a loft studio which would allow their community to gather and celebrate. The open plan of the loft was aimed to augment interaction, and flexibility and to encourage shared activities and free use. Separating the living and dining space from the adjacent master suite is a foldable wall which makes the bedroom a multi-functional environment for community events. Large fenestrations optimizes the view of surrounding greenspace and allows high degrees of cross ventilation to passively cool down the built environment.
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